1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a sheet feeding device, an image forming apparatus including the sheet feeding device, and a method of controlling the sheet feeding device.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional image forming apparatus includes at least a placement member on which a sheet is to be placed, and a sheet feeding device including a pickup roller for pulling out the sheet from the placement member. The sheet feeding device performs a sheet-feed operation as follows. The sheet feeding device brings the sheet placed on the placement member into abutment against an outer circumferential surface of the pickup roller, and, in that state, rotates the pickup roller to pull out the sheet from the placement member. Then, the sheet pulled out from the placement member is fed to a sheet conveying path provided inside the image forming apparatus.
In the conventional configuration, when sheet powder flown from the sheet adheres to the outer circumferential surface of the pickup roller, the pickup roller idly rotates in spite of the fact that the pickup roller and the sheet abut against each other, which causes a trouble that the sheet is not pulled out from the placement member satisfactorily.
In this context, in the related art, a sheet feeding device has been proposed in which a cleaning member such as a cleaning belt is provided separately and is allowed to circulate while abutting against the outer circumferential surface of the pickup roller, and thus, paper powder adhering to the outer circumferential surface of the pickup roller is removed.
In the proposed conventional configuration, the cleaning member for cleaning the pickup roller is provided separately, and hence, the pickup roller can be cleaned reliably. However, when the cleaning member is provided separately, there is a new problem in that the number of components increases to raise cost. Further, it is necessary to secure a space for disposing the cleaning member, which hinders downsizing of the sheet feeding device, and thus it becomes difficult to install the sheet feeding device in a small image forming apparatus.